January 04, 2009

Jay Mariotti joins AOL Sports as national columnist, no longer 'scrutinizing the same five teams over and over'

Jay Mariotti, who declared the future of sports writing "sadly is not in newspapers" when he resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times after 17 years in August, is joining AOL Sports as a full-time national columnist and commentator on a variety of its platforms.

A long-standing critic of local sports franchises, owners, management, athletes and anyone who accommodated them, Mariotti, 49, said by phone Sunday that "the overall tone of the column probably changes" as a national columnist compared to when his focus was primarily on Chicago.

There will still be shots at, say, Charles Barkley for his recent arrest, but the columnist expects to benefit from more variety.

"Because I'm going to be covering all these major events that involve championships, I'm probably writing more positive, upbeat, triumphant stories," Mariotti said. "You're not sitting back and analyzing, scrutinizing the same five teams over and over and over again.

"Let's look at what's happened: The Cubs choked, the Bears [stink], the Bulls go in the tank ... it becomes monotonous," he said. "You can't keep spanking [Bulls general manager] John Paxson every week. You can't get on [Bears coach] Lovie Smith every day. [Bears GM] Jerry Angelo still doesn't have a quarterback. I'm going to keep writing that from
now to kingdom come?"

Scott Ridge, director of AOL Sports, said Mariotti’s hire is part of an initiative to ramp up its original content in advance of a redesign and official re-launch this month.

Other recent additions include the hiring of former New York Daily columnist Lisa Olson and Chicago-based blogger Michael David Smith, as well as an increased role for former Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Blackistone.

“We're thrilled to bring a powerful voice such as Jay's to the site,” Ridge said by e-mail. “He's an independent thinker with strong opinions and immense writing talent.”

Mariotti abruptly left the Sun-Times this summer shortly after returning from the Beijing Olympics, just weeks after it was announced he had agreed to a three-year contract extension.

Just as stunning as the timing of his exit was how it was celebrated by his former Sun-Times colleagues in print in the days that followed with the sort of invectives usually reserved for prison-bound politicians and last-place ballclubs, not someone whose work the paper had showcased for years.

"What the hell kind of serious newspaper does that? The National Enquirer?" Mariotti said, noting his first column would address his Sun-Times departure. "It was almost a backhanded compliment that they would sink to such levels.

"One of the reasons I wrote this column tomorrow for AOL is I felt a need to connect the dots," he said. "There was such a disconnect. I needed to clarify what happened. It doesn't slam the Sun-Times. It explains why I left and why I'm thrilled to join this organization."

If nothing else, Mariotti won't have to concern himself with when presses need to start rolling Thursday when he's in Miami covering the Bowl Championship Series title game between Oklahoma and Florida.

"For the first time I won't have to worry about a third-quarter plugger column or something as inane," Mariotti said. "I can watch the whole game, a four-hour game, go downstairs [from the press box] and come back up, spend two hours writing and have it appear on a post at 3 in the morning, which is four hours before the newspaper comes. It's the future."

Of his time at the Sun-Times, Mariotti said he "had one of the best jobs in the country until about three years ago when it became obvious the paper was going to die."

The Sun-Times, of course, is still kicking, although it eliminated Mariotti's position with his departure as part of its ongoing efforts to cut costs. It is, however, dealing with a fight for control of its board as part of a larger debate over the best strategy for survival at a time when all traditional media companies are struggling economically.

Mariotti wouldn't rule out perhaps writing a Chicago column again, at least on an occasional basis and online, but he said "at this stage in my career" the opportunity to expand his purview was welcome.

"If I there was one wish I had about Chicago sports fans, it would be to be more open-minded," he said. "It's a great sports world out there with all kinds of amazing stories every day. ... I was working in a city with a bubble around it. Yeah, sometimes they care about Tiger Woods or Michael Phelps. But I would be hard-pressed to find any metropolitan area that's more consumed with its own stuff, including sports, than Chicago.

"So therefore, if you're a Chicago columnist and you're deciding on a certain topic one day, [golfer] John Daly might be a great topic, but the sports fan in this city doesn't care about John Daly as much as [Bears quarterback] Kyle Orton. And after a while, even I lose interest in the topics."

Asked if it was really Chicago fans who demanded the local focus or Chicago editors, Mariotti said, "I never thought about the editors as much as the fans. I know how the fans are. ... It's a parochial city, very provincial. When in doubt, write Chicago, write Chicago, write Chicago."

Comments

Jay, good riddance. You showed zero class in everything you did. From eating a beef sandwich with extra jardinera, to quitting your job. I will now cancel my AOL Instant Messenger account. It's sad you don't have any class. I wish you had class, but you don't.

I'm not full of hatred for Mariotti as other Chicagoians.....he bitched alot about Chicago teams because they are terrible.
He makes a good point about Newspaper being dinosaurs.....
Ever notice how only the Trib updates its sports website on a regular basis.
Suntimes, Herald, and Southtown, only update once a day.
He's smarter than he looks. Hopefully he'll lighten up.

Jay is right. 6 days of BS from the papers and the radio stations about the Bears is way too much.

He's also right about the Suntimes. they have no readable columnists left. Telander is a whiny joke. Couch is clueless. Carol-what's the point. And to top it off they have amateur hour going on with MacNeil and North attempting to write incoherent columns.

At least people talked about Jay's columns and no one talks about the columns in either paper now.

Oh, get over it. Whether Chicagoans like it or not, Mariotti has some valid points about the future of media and the mentality of the city. I lived there for years and it's a great city but he is dead on in saying, "write Chicago."

I have been a news and sports junkie since walking into Lakeview High School, on the north side of Chicago in September, 1955. Jay Mariotti is the best newspaper writer I have ever read. I know his style seems to stress the negative but as a Chicago sports fan I can understand why. The worst collection of major sports franchise owners has been headquartered in Chicago for the past 90 years! The losing record of Chicago teams through the years endorse that statement. Mariotti was one of the very few who refused to be a shill for them. I always enjoyed reading his columns even though I did not always agree with him. I will now be hooking up with AOLSports.com because of Jay.

It's good to see him gone to the scrap pile like AOL. Unfortunately, there are still too many other out there like him writing sports columns today.

There is way too much emphasis today on writing controversial, biting commentary because media folks believe that is what sells. As a reader who enjoys a good story, it is insulting to see story after story written from a phony outrage angle, over-the-top opinion angle, or complete suck-up angle.

Hopefully, the media universe will get back to more genuine commentary with time.

10. jay who?
9. isn't aol a dinosaur from the dialup age?
8. wastes our time with his dribble...
7. positive commentary is not in his vocab
6. and why didn't he write for the trib?
5. chi fans are indeed open-minded
4. chi fans don't like critics like mariotti
3. picked on ozzie unfairly
2. picked on ozzie unfairly
1. and the #1 reason why you should care is....

AOL? Good for him, he found a job, I myself thought he'd be in the unemployment line for longer than that. Too bad someone couldn't have suggested AOL to him, say, in 1992...I just remember back in the day, when Chicago DID have one consistently successful team, and if I remember correctly he seemed to focus on the negatives on that team much more so than on the positives. The truth is, Jay loves to point out the negative; that's who he is, that's just fine...but don't blame the success or failure of the local teams for your negative personality, and DON'T insult our city for actually being interested in the Chicago Bears quarterback situation and not Michael Phelps, who we've had the national media push down our throats.

About this blog

This is an expansion of the Chicago Tribune column I have written since April 2005, and the columns I wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times and Los Angeles’ Daily News for two decades before that. It’s TV, radio, newspapers and whatever, both locally and nationally. Beyond sharing what crosses my desk—and my mind—this will be a venue for you to share your takes with me as well as with each other. About Phil Rosenthal